Privacy boss, police clash over new law
Paramedics, police seek to share patient information
Alberta’s privacy commissioner is raising concerns about changes that will allow first responders to share patient information, but Calgary’s police chief said Friday they’re a necessary protection for the public.
The proposed legislation is designed to allow police and paramedics to share information at the scene of an incident without a patient’s consent.
The government introduced the Emergency Health Services Amendment Act in response to concerns from police that another piece of legislation–the Health Information Act–was preventing paramedics from sharing information vital to criminal investigations.
“This is a serious, serious concern to law enforcement throughout the province of Alberta,” Chief Rick Hanson said.
The chief said police began having problems when EMS services were transferred from municipal authority to the province last spring.
Provincial freedom-of-information legislation historically permitted police and paramedics to exchange information, Hanson said, but the transfer of EMS services to the province brought the agencies under the authority of the more restrictive Health Information Act.
“It impedes our ability to do our job,” said Hanson.
Police agencies across the province have collected several examples of investigations that were seriously compromised because paramedics didn’t share vital information with police.
The most harrowing example cited by Hanson involved a severely intoxicated girl in Calgary who showed signs of being sexually assaulted, but paramedics didn’t share that information with police.
Hanson said the girl’s parents called police two weeks later to
ask about the progress of their investigation– and the officers had no knowledge that any crime had taken place.
“We said, ‘What sex assault?’ Nobody told us about it,” Hanson said.
But in a statement Friday, Alberta privacy commissioner Frank Work said law enforcement agencies haven’t demonstrated why the loss of privacy in the amendments are justified.
“This bill may leave ambulance attendants wondering what their priorities should be . . . treating victims or gathering evidence for police,” Work said.
But Hanson said police are only seeking to restore their prior relationship with paramedics and are not seeking access to information they haven’t been entitled to before.
“We’re not talking about having access to people’s medical records,” he said.
“Let’s make this perfectly clear: all we’re asking is to get back to the relationship we had for 40 years.”
By Jason Van Rassel,Calgary Herald, November 21, 2009
http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Privacy+boss+police+clash+over/2249227/story.html
